It was hinted at, and here it is! Iwata Asks not just about a game, but an entire company. PlatinumGames already has two!!! exclusives in development for the Wii U (The Wonderful 101, Bayonetta 2) so there is clearly some kind of positive relationship happening between the two companies at the moment.

Inaba Right. I felt like I had become a wizard, and it was awesome. I was at that company for about three years, but not once did I think the work was hard. Around that time, I'd get to work (at) about seven in the morning, go to eat curry or (a) beef bowl at about midnight, work again until about two or three in the morning, have a late night snack, go home, and go to work again the next morning at seven. That lifestyle was a lot of fun.

That's insane. Working 19-20 hours a day just to go home, get a few hours of sleep, and do it all over again?!

Such is the life of a developer during the crunch before release. The balancing out is a more lethargic work pace at other times, a nice long holiday once the game ships and the pleasure of (hopefully) working on something you are really proud of.

Maybe at some point but I think their A-team was working on Metal Gear Revengeance for the last few years and that has no plans to come to Wii U. It's possible, but I wouldn't bet that it happens any time soon. The exception of course is if Nintendo were to buy a controlling interest in the company but I don't see why they would do that when they have them doing a couple exclusive games already.

@Stephen Yeah, but it sounds like that was just his day to day work schedule for 3 years, crunch or not. Hmm, and I don't think they have a single "A-team", they have a lot of big name producer/directors and they all make some pretty key stuff.

One interesting thing to note is that their first 5 games were published by Sega, and their upcoming 3 games are being published by Konami (1) and Nintendo (2). I wonder how Sega feels about this. Platinum stuff might not sell a ton, but having them under your umbrella has to be good for your image.

I think anyone working that much is getting exploited, pure and simple. And is bad at his or her job because of this irrational belief of his or her employer that longer work days are better. Studies show that shorter work days are VASTLY more productive.

I think I'm mostly remember college days, not the first job. And I'll have to admit that while the days were long, so were the lunch breaks. I wonder if people in Japan worked like that before the US influences on them after World War 2.

Regarding what you said earlier, Zero, wasn't Sega in some financial difficulties late last year? I figured that was why they said there wouldn't be a Bayonetta 2 if Nintendo hadn't stepped up. It looks like Sega got enough cash together to buy Relic in that fire sale, though, so I don't know.

I think anyone working that much is getting exploited, pure and simple. And is bad at his or her job because of this irrational belief of his or her employer that longer work days are better. Studies show that shorter work days are VASTLY more productive.

@Anand I don't know about the study, but I'll say this... I used to work 6 hours a day, now 8, and I'm pretty sure that I still approach each day trying to accomplish about the same amount of stuff. I just find more ways to slack in my 8 hour days.

@Anand That's the thing, the expectations at my job are all task-based, but the pay is not. So if I'm getting my stuff done and people are happy with my output, and I know that doing more isn't going to lead to anything but a pat on the back, what is my incentive to do more? I'm not there to get good vibes, I'm there to get a paycheck.

Well, in Minami's case here, the guy sounds like a workaholic... that he enjoys the long hours, is truly passionate about what he is doing, and you couldn't have stopped him even if you wanted. Looks like it got him places.

But such long hours on mundane or unfulfilling jobs is a different story and very sad. Here is a documentary about the poor working class in Japan and the effect that such a lifestyle has on a person:

Lou and I used to work at a telemarketing thing doing mostly business-to-business phone surveys. We were always so much quicker than the other people, that we'd routinely rank higher in "Completes" than others, and we'd run out of "sample" before the top of the hour many times. And other times, we'd rip through it so quickly that we'd finish a project before the week was up, and we'd "earn" Thursday and Friday off......without pay.

@Anand Yeah I used to work at RPS stacking trucks. They put me on the busiest truck every day. I got it done super quick. So they put me on the busiest truck and the one next to it. Still got it done quick. So then I had two trucks AND became a sort of "floater" who had to go around and help people who were behind on their one truck.

Did I get any more money than the other people who couldn't keep up with a single truck? Nope.

Did I get back problems that made me quit within a few months and are still with me to this day? Yep.